According to BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, artificial intelligence will continue to dominate the markets in 2026. The announcement comes amid growing concerns about the market’s AI dominance veering into bubble territory.

Even though the firm believes that AI will continue to dominate, it also acknowledged that investors may be in for a turbulent ride as speculative activity and leverage continue to build.

According to Reuters, Helen Jewell, BlackRock’s CIO of fundamental equities EMEA, said on Thursday that AI-linked investment returns are likely to trend higher.

However, there may also be some periods of volatility due to sector valuations or the broader outlook.

“Do I expect an upward trend of AI growth returns? Yes, these are incredible capital spends being driven by companies with incredible amounts of cash,” Jewell told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in London.

“Do I think that there is likely to be a rocky ride as we go there. Also yes,”

The growing concerns regarding AI-related volatility become even more relevant considering how hedge funds are deploying near-record levels of leverage to trade equities and bet on debt-backed strategies.

These activities may make hedge funds and the broader market more vulnerable to losses in case of a correction.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q3 2025.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 427.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 264 percentage points (see more details here).

10. Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 57

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Stifel analyst Tore Svanberg maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $200 price target. The rating affirmation follows ALAB’s stock plunge post AWS/NVDA announcement to integrate NVLink Fusion into its Trainium 4 XPU deployments.

The announcement sparked investor concerns regarding ALAB’s position in the NVLink ecosystem, particularly the switch opportunity risk in NVLink deployments. However, the firm addressed these concerns stating that AWS/NVDA tie-up concerns are overblown.

“We believe these fears are misplaced and would be acquirers of ALAB stock on weakness. ALAB’s support for the NVLink ecosystem and more active role in hyperscaler custom designs mean the company should have a continued solid content opportunity in NVLink Fusion designs across hyperscaler deployments.”

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) is engaged in the design, manufacture, and selling of semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for cloud and AI infrastructure.

9. CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 66

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, BMO Capital analyst Keith Bachman raised the firm’s price target on the stock to $555 from $500 and kept an “Outperform” rating on the shares. The price target raise follows CrowdStrike’s “solid” third quarter fiscal year 2026 results.

Revenue for the quarter rose 22% year over year to $1.23 billion, slightly exceeding the 21% growth reported in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. ARR grew 23% year over year to $4.92 billion as of Oct. 31, 2025, up 20% from the previous quarter.

Looking ahead, the company guided fiscal fourth-quarter revenue between $1.29 billion and $1.30 billion; while it expects total revenue of about $4.80 billion to $4.81 billion for the full fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2026. This represents an estimated 20% to 22% growth year over year.

BMO Capital highlighted that the cybersecurity firm delivered upside on every metric for the quarter and guide. Meanwhile, the company’s “broad and leading portfolio,” including SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), Identity, Cloud, and Charlotte AI capabilities, will help the company sustain durable growth.

Despite the company being the best positioned security company in the firm’s coverage universe, the firm noted that the company’s current valuation positions it “lower in our pecking order of Outperform-rated names.”

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRWD) is a leader in AI-driven endpoint and cloud workload protection.

8. Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 77

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Goldman Sachs raised the firm’s price target on the stock to $90 from $80 and kept a “Neutral” rating on the shares. The price target raise follows Marvell’s third quarter fiscal year 2026 financial results.

“Marvell delivered record third-quarter revenue of $2.075 billion, exceeding the midpoint of guidance, driven by strong demand for our data center products. We are guiding for robust growth in the fourth quarter and are on track for a strong finish to the fiscal year, with full-year revenue growth forecasted to exceed 40%. Looking ahead, we see demand for our products continuing to accelerate, and as a result, our data center revenue growth forecast for next year is now higher than prior expectations.”

– Matt Murphy, Marvell’s Chairman and CEO, in a statement.

Goldman Sachs has highlighted improved visibility into Marvell’s data center momentum heading into 2026, particularly the custom compute segment. The company projects datacenter revenue to grow 40% year-over-year in CY27, with custom compute revenue projected to double in the same period.

Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial AI was also discussed in the investor note, broadening its product portfolio in the expanding datacenter market.

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL) engages in the development and production of semiconductors, focusing heavily on data centers.

7. Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 92

Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, UBS analyst David Vogt reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $155.00 price target. The firm holds a positive stance on ANET, supported by a robust outlook and minimal near-term risks.

According to the firm, Arista typically does not provide guidance “assuming everything hits at 100%.” Rather, it maintains visibility for two quarters that supports its initial guidance and revisions that occur as the year progresses.

Vogt noted that Arista has provided a 20% growth goal for F26, which is earlier than usual and signals confidence. This goal is supported by Arista’s campus target of $800M in F25 and $1.25B in F26- along with expectations to exit F25 at $1.5B in Front End/Back End operations and reach $2.75B in 2026.

The firm further said in a note that Arista hasn’t highlighted any risk for Q4 or F25/26 on its last earnings call. However, there was an intention to point out tightness in the market, which is why the company increased its purchase commitments to ensure supply.

Arista Networks Inc (NYSE:ANET) develops, markets, and sells cloud networking solutions.

6. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 115

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 2, TD Cowen reiterated a “Buy” rating on the stock with a $290 price target. Firm analyst believes AMD is an AI winner, with the Helios launch marking a key AI inflection point.

TD Cowen has picked AMD as one of its Best Ideas of 2026, highlighting how Helios is going to fire up AMD’s AI business. The “Helios” AI rack-scale architecture is an open, integrated platform for scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure.

Even though there are concerns existing around a volatile AI spending environment, analysts believe that AI compute spending will remain durable with AMD establishing itself as a winner.

The recent pullback in shares is therefore an attractive entry point with compelling value ahead of the Helios launch.

“Given the recent sell-off and what we see as excess scrutiny versus peers, we see an attractive entry point. No doubt it’ll be a noisy year in AI, and as AMD ramps its first rack-scale solution, but at <10× our 2030E EPS, we see compelling value ahead of the Helios launch.”

The investor note highlighted how AMD’s hardware roadmap, steady progress in ROCm software ecosystem, and particularly customer wins, have reinforced confidence in the company’s ability to create and capture value in the AI compute market.

“Against a very large TAM, we believe the Helios rack and MI450 will mark a key inflection in AMD’s story beginning in mid-2026. We think investors should own the stock ahead of the ramp, as we model 4Q26 EPS inflecting to a >$10 run-rate, or up ~2× YoY and QoQ.”*

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) develops and sells semiconductors, processors, and GPUs for data centers, gaming, AI, and embedded applications.

5. Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 122

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Wells Fargo initiated coverage of the stock with an “Overweight” rating and a $280 price target. Analysts at the firm view Oracle gaining major AI infrastructure share; supporting its long-term re-rating.

According to analyst Michael Turrin, Oracle is early at an AI-driven reacceleration; indicating meaningful upside even as shares sit “42% off highs” and valued at an estimated 25x FY27 earnings.

The company is well positioned to become a “clear market share gainer in infra,” with the potential to reach scale similar to the next closest hyperscaler by 2029.

Turrin noted how Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is projected to scale sharply over the next four years, with cloud market share potentially rising to “~16% of the cloud market by 2029.”

“Clear market share gainer in infra: we see ORCL set to reach similar scale to next closest hyperscaler by 2029, underpinned by success landing numerous major AI infra projects (most notably OpenAI’s 4.5GW / $300B+ compute contract)…

Our $280 PT is derived from 30x P/E on Fwd NTM ests, above historical levels but reasonable in our view given the magnitude of AI opp ahead and ORCL’s favorable positioning within key AI lab accounts.”

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is a database management and cloud service provider.

4. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 166

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Goldman Sachs maintained its Buy rating on the stock with a $320.00 price target. The rating affirmation is driven by an optimistic outlook on broad-based Services growth despite near-term App Store softness.

As per Sensor Tower data, Apple App Store spending for November 2025 grew 6%, decelerating from +9% yoy in October 2025. The slowdown was largely driven by the Games category, Apple’s largest, declining 2% year-over-year.

Geographically, four of Apple’s top 5 geographies decelerated sequentially. These top five markets—the United States, Japan, United Kingdom, and Canada, collectively account for 52% of total App Store spending.

App Store spending growth rates have halved since July 2025, noted the firm, resulting in near-term downside risk and potential disruption from off-app payments.

Even though spending growth rates for App Store in October and November have tracked below Apple’s guidance for F1Q26 Services revenue, the firm anticipates Apple’s Services guidance to be supported by faster growth across other service categories.

“This is consistent with Apple’s F4Q25 Services performance, where Service revenue accelerated to 15% yoy (+13% yoy in F3Q25) despite App Store revenue growth likely decelerating, as growth accelerated across most of Apple’s other Service categories (we estimate that revenue growth accelerated sequentially in F4Q25 for iCloud+, AppleCare+, Apple Music and other subscriptions, and Apple Pay).”*

Apple is a technology company known for its consumer electronics, software, and services.

3. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3^rd, Bank of America reiterated the stock as “Buy,” stating that it is sticking with the AI chipmaker.

The firm believes Nvidia warrants a premium valuation because of its leadership in AI. However, there are risks and uncertainties involved that add uncertainty to the outlook.

“Our $275 PO is based on 28x CY27E PE ex cash, within NVDA’s historical 25x-56x forward year PE range, which we believe is justified by NVDA’s leading share in fast-growing AI compute/networking markets, offset by lumpiness in global AI projects, cyclical gaming market, and concerns around access to power.”

In other news, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he met with President Donald Trump on Wednesday to discuss chip export restrictions.

Huang explained that while he did support export controls, he opposes proposals like the AI GAIN Act, stating that it would harm US competitiveness. Moreover, he noted that state-by-state regulation would stall innovation and create national security risks.

“State-by-state AI regulation would drag this industry into a halt and it would create a national security concern, as we need to make sure that the United States advances AI technology as quickly as possible,” Huang said. “A federal AI regulation is the wisest.”

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) specializes in AI-driven solutions, offering platforms for data centers, self-driving cars, robotics, and cloud services.

2. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 243

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Deepak Mathivanan reiterated a Neutral rating on the stock with a $310.00 price target. The firm sees long-term AI upside from Gemini 3 but remains cautious on near-term valuation stretch.

According to the firm, Alphabet will likely see advantages from the deployment of Gemini 3, its latest AI model, across Search, AI mode, and Cloud; in FY26.  Discussing the model’s moat, the firm noted how the company has kept the architecture of Gemini quite confidential.

Despite the secrecy, it appears that Gemini 3’s advancements are derived from “scaling pre-training, training on large TPU compute, efficiency gains on compute utilization (AlphaEvolve), and leveraging training data from Google services.”

The firm believes that even though some of these are structural advantages, it is likely that other AI labs will begin to demonstrate progress with training runs on larger infrastructure. This will enable them to close the gap with Gemini 3 over the course of 6-12 months.

“Historically, SOTA models have stayed on top of leaderboards for an average of ~60 days.”

Overall, the firm holds an optimistic outlook for 2026. However, it believes that shares may experience some near-term consolidation following its recent outperformance.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is an American multinational technology conglomerate holding company wholly owning the internet giant Google, amongst other businesses.

1.  Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 332

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is one of the 10 AI Stocks Analysts are Tracking Closely. On December 3, Piper Sandler analyst Tom Champion reiterated an Overweight rating on the stock with a $233.00 price target. The firm is constructive on the stock, citing both the upcoming holiday season and strengthening AWS product momentum.

Referring to Adobe data released on Wednesday, the firm noted solid Black Friday to Cyber Monday growth, with total holiday season spend projected to reach an estimated 5%. The firm views these results favorably “given tough compares with ’24.”

“Adobe data released today suggests solid Black Friday to Cyber Monday growth and total ’25 holiday season spend growth projected at ~5%. A good result in our view given tough compares with ’24.”

Holiday spending data is viewed as a positive read-thru for advertising-focused companies as well, benefiting Amazon’s growing advertising business.

The firm also discussed AWS re:Invent 2025, praising AWS CEO Garmans’s keynote and the arrival of the Agentic platform era.

“Further, we were impressed with AWS CEO Garman’s re:Invent keynote highlighting scale, hardware and new product developments, plus the arrival of the Agentic platform era. Reiterate OW rating.”

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is an American technology company offering e-commerce, cloud computing, and other services, including digital streaming and artificial intelligence solutions.

While we acknowledge the potential of AMZN as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than AMZN and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

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